Only a poor family in Moscow
by Jungle Leopard
Summary: My new version of the 7-9 year old turtles. They live in Moscow (Russia) in the 1980s and their adoptive father Splinter works as a psychology teacher. One of the poorest paid jobs one gets. They live a harsh city and school life. One poor family in Moscow that will always stick together. Enjoy.
1. Of the life as four poor turtles

**Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT**

I wanted Raph and Donnie here to be fraternal twins, since I always  
thought of Don being the more mature whereas Raph  
seemed the same age as Donnie.

_Only a poor family in Moscow_

_Tmnt in Russia 1980s._

* * *

"I got it!" Raphael shouted. He waved the newspaper above his head, proud that he had outraced his nine-year-old brother Leo.

Raph and Donnie were only eight and Mikey had just entered school with seven. They lived with their adoptive father Splinter in a small apartment in the heart of Moscow. Their father had gotten a job as a psychological teacher at a university and as a teacher, pay was little. Their rented apartment had only four small rooms: A kitchen with a table, five chairs, a couple of small shelves and a gas stove, a bathroom without a shower or a bathtub, a small room for Splinter and a room with four beds for the siblings.  
At home they mostly studied and did their massive amounts of homework, bought foods at many different small stores, played or read books or helped with the cooking. They also cleaned the apartment and washed their clothes in a large wooden canister they filled with water, when their father was at home. They returned from school by three-thirty, when they finished school at three. Their father returned at five o'clock, tired from his work.  
On Sundays, when the family was not busy working or at school, Splinter would take them to a small park about two kilometers away, to play with the few things the siblings shared. An inflatable ball, a shovel and a plastic bucket for making sand castles, some chunks of plain white chalk, five children books which were the Hobbit, the Wizard of Oz, Huckleberry Fin, Moby Dick and Robinson Cruso, and a small flute they could play on.

They had visited a local school providing them with the best education providable for free. Every day they had to wake at six o'clock to wash, brush teeth, dress in their uniforms and eat breakfast, and saying goodbye to their father. Then hurrying down eight stair cases out to the dirty streets for one kilometer to their school. They would go through extreme traffic and arrive at the school only at seven-thirty. Just before classes would start. The school was hard and harsh. High expectations and extreme punishment, and a lot of homework.  
They did quite well in school, Donnie's mark never less than a five (the highest mark), Leo's longing for improvement between four to five, Raph's marks reached wide from a three minus in mathematics to a five plus in sports and Mikey never gained more that three to four, never five. Donnie bloomed and Leo never caused trouble. It was usually Mikey or Raph who were in trouble. Mikey because he fooled a little in class, but mostly Raph because of his rebellious nature and because he stuck up for others in front of bullies. He often got trouble with the teachers because he let his fists fly against bullies sometimes. They were bullied because of their size, their names and their poor family and god-knows-what. The bullies were often popular boys at the age of 9-14, that's up to where students stayed in this school. The four turtle brothers had no friends than themselves. Their poor mere little selves.

* * *

_Click click_

The building's entrance door creaked as Leo turned the key and opened it.

Raph gave a suffering growl. He had stood up for Mikey against an eleven-year-old bully, and they got in a fight. Raph lost, but gained a little more respect from the bully. He was pretty much beaten up, and his cheek was bleeding, his uniform messed up, his reddish hair was a disaster and three more bruises added to his collection. No one would be punished.

The brothers climbed the eight long staircases to the eight floor and Leo again unlocked the door number 503. The last and cheapest one to rent.

The door opened with a familiar creak. The creak the brothers knew for seven years of their lives, because seven years ago Splinter had adopted them from an orphanage. Now they were a family.

Splinter, their father.

Leonardo, the oldest and most mature.

Raphael, the protector of the four, and the hot-headed twin of Donnie.

Donatello, the smartest oft the four and Raph's loving twin.

Michelangelo, the baby brother and the most joyful one, but also the easiest to scare.

One family, that would always stick together and never argue. Almost never.

* * *

Donnie put a small plaster on Raph's cheek.

"There, that's done. Brothers, I should recommend we study, since we have quite a lot of homework to do," said Donnie. The others, if not really excited, agreed with him.  
Homework was not exactly their favorite, and it was really complicated if they weren't Donnie. They sat together at the kitchen table and Mikey brought their shared box of pencils. Then they took their work books and notebooks out of their leather backpacks and their ink pens.  
"Wait! We need to change! We can't just stay in our uniforms, especially you Raph," Leo just remembered. Thank god, because they need to wash their clothes. The brothers quickly exchanged their former white shirts, grey trousers, grey jackets, black ties and leather shoes ("Why are you still wearing your shoes Mikey?" asked Leo) for colorful shirts in their favorite colors, normal rough material shorts in black and Mikey took him shoes off and put them by the door next to the ones of his brothers.  
"Should we NOW start our homework?" a pretty much annoyed Donnie asked. They started to work on their assignments. They always followed a strict order. Since Raph had often problems with math, Donnie did his math first and Raph his math last. So first Donnie started doing math, Raph practiced his loud reading, Leo checked on him while he did his writing tasks, and Mikey learned his handwritings. Then Donnie checked on how Mikey did his math while he read silently (he had a five plus in reading out loud and needed no practice), Raph wrote his writing tasks and Leo did his maths. Then Donnie wrote and Leo read silently, while Mikey read and Raph did math with his twin's help.

It was five o'clock when they had finished their homework. Mikey was still reading out loud while Raph helped him. It was good practice for him too.  
"_Whe-when M-Maria held uuup the limb_, no _lamb_, no-", Mikey stuttered in try to figure out the secret behind the mysterious letter patterns.  
"It's 'lamp' Mikey," Raph said behind his brothers shoulder.  
"Thanks Raph. - _Held up the lamp sheee s-saw that the d-doooor ha-had a vvviioolett aron the sah_- no - _sign_. How was that?" Mikey questioned.  
" Great. but it's '_violet R on the sign_' not aron. Right Donnie?" said Raph and earned an approving nod from Donnie.  
"Raph, could you read this out for me please?" Raph agreed to Mikey's plea and took the book.  
"_Do not forget to always do your work_." Raph read Mikey's practicing sentence slowly. He still wasn't stable.

"Donnie, Mikey, Raph? Isn't it strange that it is ten past five o'clock? Father did not return from work yet. Do you think we should start washing?" Leo asked worried.  
Raph grumbled, Mikey looked up from his book and Donnie stopped reading the newspapers. "Sure. I know Raphie would not like it." Don was the only one who was allowed to call Raph like that.  
"Really Donnie, I would prefer it when I don't get hit tomorrow in school for a sloppy uniform." Raph mumbled.

The brothers got out their uniforms, their father's shirt and trouser, their own spare ones and an old brush, as well as an old soap. Leo filled in the big wooden washtub. Then his brothers came to help him. They took their small red plastic bucket, a big teapot, two empty jam jars and a metal pot for cooking to all together fill the washtub. It took them about three minutes to fill it up.

Then the door creaked. "My sons. I have returned." said a familiar voice.  
"Father!" all four sons cried happy.  
"My sons, I have a present for you all. I have brought you rosin bread from the two rubles I earned extra today." Splinter told them. They were very excited, because sweets were a rare treat for the family. They thanked their father happily.  
"But Raphael, where did you get that plaster over your cheek?"  
"I-I, Donnie did it for me." Raph stumbled and had gone red.  
"Yeah!" Mikey cried, "There was this boy from 5th grade and he wanted to beat me up after school!"  
"And Raphie stood up for his younger brother" added Donnie.  
"He was really brave for us today, and although he got pretty hurt he hurt that boy too" Leo finished it off.  
Raph got even more red when Splinter said "Well done my son, you did right in protecting your brothers, I am very proud of you Raphael." with pride.

Then they had dinner and washed their uniforms. Then they went to bed early at eight.


	2. Run fast to keep baby brother awake!

"My sons! Awake! It is time to wake up! Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo! Wake up!" the four boys yawned and stretched and Leo was the first one to crawl out of bed.  
"Good morning father."  
Then Raph got up and Donnie desperately struggled with waking Mikey up. Mikey wouldn't give. That resulted in Donnie fetching a cup and filling it with about one centimeter of icy water tilted it over Mikey's head. Mikey was wide-awake.  
"Good morning father. We will fetch the newsletter for you right away!" Mikey cried as he went to dress himself up in his uniform, seeing he was a bit behind his brothers.

As all gathered by the door, Leo opened it and closed it behind him. They hurried down the staircase and Leo did the same procedure on the main entrance door. Then they lined up in one row.  
"Three. Two. One. GO!" Leo shouted as they ran the sleep out of themselves, in race who would buy the newspaper first.  
"I got it! I got it!" Mikey shouted as they raced over the street and past a car with an old man shouting them to watch out. Leo apologized while running, and was then over-taken by Raph, who smiled at his brother after getting close up with Mikey. He snatched out the ruble paper his baby brother held up as the leading, and made his way in front of an old lady rabbit with a poodle. She just shook her head smiling as the young turtles raced past her.  
"Raphie! I get it!" cried Donnie as he came close up to his fast brother. Raphael, knowing the rules, held up the money while murmuring "No, Donnie, not quite" under his breath made an end spurt for the kiosk. It was only across the road. Donnie came by him and snatched the ticket from his three-fingered hand. Raph grunted and ran faster, when he noticed Leo caught up with him. Mere moments after that Leo took the money out of Donnie's hand and stopped at the kiosk, shouting "A Russian World Newspaper, please!" to the man behind the door. The old dog knew them very well and quickly handed it to Leo, who gave him the money, to run off as fast as possible to overtake his brothers. Mikey was the real trouble now, since he was the furthest ahead. Leo ran faster and overtook Mikey like nothing. Then a rough hand put itself on his shoulder, and Leo could hear Raph's deep voice saying "You better run faster, or I might actually win!" and then Raph grabbed the Newsletter and made his way for the door, which was now only three blocks away. Leo ran and ran, but Raph seemed so far ahead.  
"I WIN!" Raph shouted as he touched the door with his left hand, the paper in his right. Then Leo arrived, and Donnie, and finally Mikey.  
"Next time Mikey gets a head start, and Raphie will get a last start."Donnie said "He wins almost every time.

They opened the door of their apartment and Raph cried out  
"Father I got you the news!" and put the papers in his father's hands.  
"Thank you Raphael. I hope you have not hurt anyone."  
"No, not a single bug father!" Raph claimed.  
Then the turtles joined their father by the table, and Leo took the milk out of the refrigerator and Raph took the bread and knife from the shelf, as well as the butter and the sliced ham and they put it on the table. Donnie was trusted with the bread cutting, while Leo poured milk into small china cups and Mikey brought the plates along with Raph.

Then they drank their milks, ate their breads and prepared each two for themselves to eat at school for lunch. They wrapped them up in the paper bags the bread always cam in and left the table to brush their teeth. Then they checked on if they had all of their school materials and it appeared that Mikey had lost his pen. Again. The thirty seconds they spent crawling all over the apartment in the desperate search for their brother's pen, until Leo found it under Donnie's and Raph's bunk bed. Then they washed the dishes as fast as possible, because they needed to leave in five minutes. Then Donnie started crying all of the sudden.  
Raph immediately ran over to his brother who was drying the dishes, dropping the porcelain plate into the sink and leaving the work to Mikey and Leo, who were washing the rest of the dishes as well. A miracle the plate didn't shatter.  
Raph carefully hugged his sobbing twin and petted him on the shoulder.

"What is it Donnie?" he asked quietly, causing his twin's crying to go down a bit. It was in such moments that you could see how especially deep the twins' connection really was.  
"Well, what if that big boy calls his friends and they together come and beat you up, like another one did before the summer holidays. You were pretty beat up actually."  
And Donnie starts crying again.  
"Well, what if that big boy calls his friends and they together come and beat you up, like another one did before the summer holidays. You were pretty beat up actually."  
And Donnie starts crying again.  
Raph just whispers "Then I will take out my notebook and hit them so hard they will fly all the way across to America. In case they don't get hit by a plane."  
His twin brother laughed and his tears were almost gone. His Raphie was just so hilarious.

The nagging voice of Mikey, who just dried the last dish for them, remembered them of the time. Their father had said them goodbye already ten minutes ago, and they should be going no. The brothers quickly jumped for their square leather backpacks and their thin grey jackets necessary to put over their shirts and close to the third button, put on their leathery shoes required for school, although Raph would have preferred his trainers, and ran out of the apartment. After Leo locked the door they flung themselves down the endlessly long staircase and, after Leo unlocked and locked the main entrance door again, they walked out of the building. They didn't have to hurry, but they had no time to waste. The tower clock showed six forty-five, and they had to be aware of many cars and bikes on their way. The way to the kiosk was just a tenth of their way to school, and the roads on their school way were far more busy.


End file.
